Renée Zellweger and George Clooney have been pals for a long time – long enough, it seems, that even wise-cracking about their personal lives comes easy.

In a new interview with the U.K. edition of Marie Claire, the pair – who costar together in the new movie Leatherheads – have a good laugh about their views on marriage.

“We’ve both been very successful at it,” Clooney joked. (He’s divorced, and Zellweger annulled her marriage to Kenny Chesney after four months).

The pair have been friends for ten years and they’ve been romantically linked in the past, prompting Zellweger, 38, to joke: “We’re married! Didn’t you hear? The baby’s coming in July. Why do you think I’m wearing this baggy jacket?”

In all seriousness, though, she thinks Clooney, 46, is a “good man,” saying: “It’s just his natural disposition … he does the right thing, it’s almost a disease with him. I know it’s shocking in this day and age that there’s no scandal. He’s just nice and he works very, very hard.”

‘One of My Dearest Friends’
Clooney, twice named People’s Sexiest Man Alive, was similarly effusive about Zellweger, describing her as “one of my dearest friends.” As the writer and director of the 1920s football comedy Leatherheads, Clooney says he felt under pressure as well.

“When Renee commits, it greenlights a movie. So, there’s a responsibility, as the director of this film, not to screw up my friend,” Clooney said. Zellweger chimed in: “And I reminded him daily. ‘Don’t screw this up for me, man.’”

Zellweger, meanwhile, has nothing but praise for Clooney, her director and costar, although she admitted feeling the pressure when she realized her part in Leatherheads was written for her by Clooney.

“I was terrified,” she says. “I didn’t want to be the one who sucked in his movie. You’d much rather disappoint someone you’re not going to see again.”

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Pictured: George Clooney and girlfriend Sarah Larson, Renee Zellweger, John Krasinski and Cindy Crawford.

Renee Zellweger would hate to be a journalist – because she wouldn’t be able to print negative stories about celebrities. The Leatherheads star plays an undercover reporter in her latest role, and, despite training to be journalist before she took up a career in acting, insists she would hate the moral responsibility that comes with the job.

She tells Parade magazine, “I don’t know that I’d want that kind of responsibility of having the power to hurt someone with a public disclosure. But, ironically, I intended to be a reporter before I got into acting. “I majored in journalism, so it was kind of fun to explore that. But I could never write a story that would have a big, negative impact on somebody’s life. I don’t think I’d sit well with that.”

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Actress Renee Zellweger has branded her co-star George Clooney a “spoil sport” – because he would never let her fool around on set.

The pair star together in Leatherheads, a romantic comedy set in the world of 1920s football, but Zellweger was constantly told off by Clooney – who also directs the movie – for playing with the replica pigskin balls. But the 38-year-old insists she “couldn’t help” herself when it came to throwing the balls in her period costume.

Zellweger tells Parade magazine, “I had on my hat with the feather, and my little high heeled buckled shoes and gloves while I was throwing the pigskin, but I couldn’t help myself. “When I gave it a toss, the director, that would be Mr. Clooney, scolded me and said, ‘You put that thing down. What am I going to do with you when you miss and take one on the nose and we’ve got a close up? Put that ball down.’ I thought he was a spoil sport.”

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Renee Zellweger is still haunted by her first taste of fame in the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire, because she was so overwhelmed she spent much of the shoot in tears.

She wasn’t prepared for starring alongside Tom Cruise in the Oscar-winning movie, and frequently sneaked off of the set to cry in private.

She says, “I just remember crying behind a bunch of fake bushes on the set when nobody could see me. I remember it well.”

I still love that movie….It spawned a whole “You had me at hello” craze.

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Renee Zellweger departs Ye Waverly Inn with her date. Renee was seen smiling, as they were holding hands while staring into each others eyes.

Anyone recognize him?

Splash

Working with longtime pal George Clooney in the 1920s football comedy Leatherheads – which Clooney also directed – was a “no-brainer” for Renée Zellweger.

“I heard George was making a movie and I said, ‘When?’ If he had asked me to make peanut-butter sandwiches for the catering, I would have said, ‘Crunchy or smooth?’” the 39-year-old actress says in the April issue of InStyle of the film, which also stars The Office cutie John Krasinski. “It’s never less than great with him. And poor me, I had to watch guys throw a football all day … Talk about living the dream.”

But the Oscar-winning film star isn’t only ogling her hunky costars and talking fashion (“It’s extraordinary to wear one of those red-carpet gowns”) in the magazine’s first-ever “Color” issue.

Zellweger says “Sometimes people ask, ‘Don’t you miss your home?’ Well, no. I go to work with George Clooney or Harry Connick,” but she adds, “I’m probably more okay by myself than anything.”

The currently single star, who was briefly married to country music star Kenny Chesney also says, “I’m fortunate. I think I was born happy. If I have a bad moment, it doesn’t take me long to switch the gear back. I say, ‘That sucked,’ and move on.”

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